Racism, Prejudice, and a Challenge

{sigh} I've been hearing a lot about racial prejudice and discrimination. An awful lot of it framed as Us vs. Them, where Us are People of Color, and Them are The Whites. I've even heard people say that as a white, I can't help but be Part of the Problem.

Nonsense.

I'm a Baldwin. My relatives have been fighting against racial discrimination and prejudice for at least a century and a half, sometimes risking our reputations, our jobs, and even arrest to make things better as we can. I haven't had the opportunities my ancestors did, but I'm ready for my turn.

I am not part of the problem, but when folks tell me I am... it's tempting to be what they so obviously expect. It's really tempting. {bite lips} Fortunately, this ally is pretty stubborn. In fact, I'm stubborn enough to ask for a way to be part of Us, and not Them, despite being white. That's my challenge to anyone and everyone who's been pushing this dichotomy. Find a way to stop shutting me out.

 

I'm not an enemy here, and I don't appreciate folks trying to turn me into one. {determined look}

 

 

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

{chuckle}

Mulluane asked an interesting question on her Old Bat's Belfry blog ( http://oldbatsbelfry.blogspot.com/ ) yesterday. (Over here: http://oldbatsbelfry.blogspot.com/2014/01/fun-fridays-let-your-imaginations-fly.html ) She asked what job we'd like to have in heaven.

I said librarian, and apologized for not being more creative and original.

She asked me to save it, and come up with another answer. My first answer was the right one for me. I just explained why in a follow-up comment:

"{blink} I don't think it would be much of a heaven if you didn't have stories to keep you entertained, or if you couldn't finally learn the answers to the burning questions you always wondered about.

If you have enough stories to keep everyone entertained with all their different tastes, and enough information to answer everyone's burning questions, including the highly technical ones of specialists within their fields... well, you'll have to store that information somewhere. Libraries started with wooden boards, clay tablets, and papyrus scrolls. They moved to parchment and vellum, then started cutting the vellum and binding it into books. Then they started getting audio visual materials and computer files. Every last type has been collected, organized, and preserved by libraries. Even if they stored al this in the minds of assorted residents, they'd need a very detailed catalog to tell you which resident to consult about what.

But I bet they don't, because who wants to have to drop whatever they're busy doing to answer a question every time someone thinks of it? So they'll have some way to store both stories and information that saves everyone from interruptions. Then it won't matter whether they store it books, or clouds, or stars, or atoms; they'll still have to store those materials, and organize them, and help folks find the specific information and stories they want when they want it.

The folks who do that will be librarians by definition... and I'd give anything to be one of them. {SMILE}"

I'm not sure what either she or David, the other fellow in the discussion so far, will think of that, but it really is the truth. {SMILE, wink}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

A request for recommendations

I've noticed a troubling theme in fantasy and science fiction stories. At least it troubles me as a handicapped woman. {bite lips}

When the heroine is handicapped, she doesn't get a romantically satisfying ending as far as I'm concerned. I don't think it's because I'm being too fussy. Wine, roses, champagne, and the like aren't required. All I want is for her to end up with a guy who, if he were direct enough, could honestly say "I could go it on my own, or find someone else, but I'd rather stay here with you." The only gal I know of is Myste in Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series, and she's the hero's love interest than a major character in her own right. {smile}

Handicapped guys can find gals like that. It doesn't happen often, but there's Carradoc of the Shrunken Arm in King Arthur's legends, Tannim in Mercedes Lackey's Serrated Edge series, Alberich in Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series, Gryffin in The Dream-Maker's Magic by Sharon Shinn, Philip Guthrie in Hope's Folly by Linnea Sinclair, Miles Vorkosigan in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vor series, and a few others I don't remember quite well enough to fetch the books for. {smile}

Now don't get me wrong: this is good. Handicapped guys need the encouragement too, and I'm very glad they're getting it. However... when it's a gal who has a handicap, she's practically never that lucky. I've seen more ways for this to get messed up than I ever expected:

1) The gal ends up with no romantic involvement.

2) The gal doesn't settle down with a guy until her handicap has been fixed, so she's no longer handicapped.

3) The gal settles down on a planet where her handicap isn't a handicap. (Who cares if you're deaf when every non-deaf human has to wear deafening earplugs to keep the local inhabitants from piercing their ear drums with their loud calls?)

4) The gal finds a guy, but they're united by a magical, psychic, biological, etc. bond they have no control over. This bond tends to ensure the guy either can't "make it" with the vast majority of otherwise eligible females, or can't happily settle down with anyone else. If the gal he finds happens to be handicapped, he courts her anyway. {lop-sided smile}

What's wrong with these stories? Nothing individually. None of them quite fit the romantic attitude I'm looking for, but I don't expect every story to end the way I'd like. The problem is that I haven't found any that do work out well. All the stories that don't work out well get frustrating when I look at them together, with so little to balance them out. {pause, bite lips}

That's why I'm asking for recommendations. I haven't read everything out there. Maybe I've missed something, or forgotten something. Does anyone know any science fiction or fantasy stories where a handicapped gal settles down with a guy who stays with her because he wants her, even tho he has the normal range of choices? He doesn't have to be in perfect condition himself. I'm counting both Alberich and Myste when they find each other. {smile}

I'm hoping there's more out there that I've missed, one way or another. {wistful smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Turning 40

The age of 40 has such a terrible reputation, I guess I expected to feel a little different somehow. Never mind that I never felt different on previous birthdays. Never mind that I regularly forget how old I am, so I often have to stop and calculate if somebody actually asks. I still expected to feel different. {Smile}

(Yes, I forget my age. Do you realize how infrequently a woman gets asked her age in modern American culture? At most, I get to answer this a few times a years, and sometimes that's because I brought up the subject. {look UP Giggle, BIG GRIN})

Anyway, I expected to feel a little different somehow. I don't. 40 feels a awful lot like 39 did to me. {BIG SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Interdependance

I was talking to my friend Liz when the subject of interdependence came up. My feelings on the subject are strong enough, they surprise me when I remember them. They're certainly strong enough to share more widely. {smile}

In my experience, interdependence is absolutely terrifying if I let myself think about it. I am relying on others to support me... and sooner or later they will let me down. It's not a question of whether they'll let me down. They will. No matter how much they want to avoid doing so, they will sooner or later. When they do, I will get hurt. All I can do then is trust in my own ability to heal... if not perfectly, then well enough to carry on. {smile}

{pause}

It's worth it. I can't doubt that. I tried independence when I was younger... boy, that was a bleak and empty time! {rueful smile}

Interdependence may be scary and painful, but it fills my life with the family members and dear friends who make life worth living. Yes, there's pain and fear this way, but there's also joy and love in measures independence could never, ever provide. {WARM SMILE, BIG WARM SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin